Anton Caputo: Global warming, water and power

It’s probably not news to many that the future of Texas, and indeed much of the world, will be characterized by increased efforts to find adequate supplies of power and water as populations continue to grow.

Texas is looking at water shortages in the coming decades for a number of reasons, mostly population growth. Climate change, which has yet to be factored into the state’s planning in any meaningful way, is expected to only enhance that problem by increasing evaporation and possibly causing less rainfall.

Kathy Jacobs of the Arizona Water Institute said this will undoubtedly lead the state to explore desalination plants and projects to move major amounts of water from one part of the state to another.

The only problem, she said, is that’s going to take a lot of another commodity that we are finding in shorter supply — energy. It works the other way, too.

“The energy equation is so dependant on water supply,” Jacobs said. “I don’t think there is enough appreciation of how important it is that it takes a lot of water to create a lot of energy and it takes a lot of energy to pump and treat water.”

Gerald North, a noted atmospheric scientist from Texas A&M who is also attending the conference organized by Texas State’s River Systems Institute, agreed.

With many visions of the state’s future including a growing number of rivers not making it to the coast, he said there could be a very concrete impact on power production.

“What will happen to the nuclear reactors we’ve placed on those rivers for cooling?” he asked.